top reasons and ways to compost

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Whether you are in an urban or suburban environment, there are lots of ways to compost. There are also a lot of reasons to compost. I’ll go over both the ways and reasons here. Of note: I’m going to focus on vegetable composting. You can compost your own meat products, but I haven’t tackled it, so don’t have the expertise to advise. I will focus on a DIY version of composting because I do my own composting and am familiar with this more than composting through a company.

Reasons

It’s better for the environment - composting reduces methane emissions that occur when compost materials are instead put in a landfill. Methane is the second most dangerous greenhouse gas with CO2 being the first. Methane is released during the anaerobic process that breaks down compost material in a landfill. If you want to learn more about the science behind this, check out this article from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. By composting, an oxygen-based (not methane-based) breakdown of the compost materials occurs. MUCH better for the environment!
It’s cheaper than buying compost - Having our own compost is a real money and time saver. We don’t have to go to the store to buy compost, and we don’t have to spend money to get it. We use it when we plant new plants, such as perennials and annuals in the flower gardens. We also use it if there’s a patch of grass that needs seeding. We till the compost in the ground, add seed and water and have a much higher success rate.
Saves the community and me (and you) money - If our community has to take away all our compost materials in the form of trash every week, that is extra bags of trash. Communities have to pay for the tonnage of trash. Whatever we can do to reduce our trash production, reduces that tonnage and ultimately keeps taxes down. This may seem altruistic if I’m one of the only people doing it. However, municipalities will soon face the lack of new landfill creation and will be forced to move residents to composting sooner or later anyway. So it’s better to be ahead of the curve. Some municipalities have already instituted a “Pay-as-you-throw” system to help mitigate residential trash production and it seems to have positive results. If I have to pay for each garbage bag I fill, I would certainly be inclined to produce less.

Ways

Hire a firm to pick up your compost - If composting in your backyard isn’t for you, or you don’t have a backyard, not to fret. There are plenty of companies that will come pick up your compost. Just a few locally we have

Bootstrap Compost
Save That Stuff
Black Earth Compost

If you want to make an environmental impact, but don’t want to compost on your own (or can’t), use a private service.

If you want to DIY, check with your local municipality to see if they have a program. Our town provides inexpensive composting bins to residents.

2. Work with your local municipality - Check your local municipality too. Andover has a composting facility that takes grass clippings and yard waste. They also let you take compost home for your garden from the compost yard. It’s $25 for the year unlimited drops and pickups.

A lot of urban communities have already made a switch to curbside composting. They offer free kitchen bins and bags and free curbside pickup. The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts has a great program that can be an example for building your own community composting initiative.

3. Do it yourself - For us, it’s easiest to compost on our own. A few things to know.

Compost materials are broken into greens and browns: Green consists of kitchen greens, such as vegetable scraps, egg shells, houseplant cutting, coffee grounds, etc., as well as yard greens, such as grass clippings (small amount), plant clippings, vegetable garden clippings, etc. Note:

We do not put our grass clippings in with our compost because we do use some organic fertilizers on the grass and I’m just a bit paranoid about it.
When we put egg shells in the compost, we wash them thoroughly first. A little Dawn and water and you're good. It prevents any concern about salmonella and any smell from attracting predators. TBH we grind up most of our egg shells to use as extra calcium for our plantings, especially our tomatoes that need it.
We do not put citrus, garlic or onion in the compost. The high acidity is not microorganism or worm friendly so we just avoid it.

Kitchen browns can include a variety of things, but we usually stick to paper towels, napkins, coffee filters, and lint. Note:

We stuff our lint into old toilet paper rolls or egg cartons and use them as fire starters. So fast!

Yard browns include dried leaves and other yard waste. Note:

This kitchen compost bin is great and fits under the sink.

We do not put plant clippings or weeds in this pile of compost. We have a separate pile for grass clippings and plant waste. This is because we have rose bush clippings, which can carry disease and weeds which could unwittingly become volunteer plants if we have them mixed in the compost. See volunteer story below.

Get a good bin for your kitchen. We use this one from Amazon. It’s under the sink and it’s great. It doesn't smell I promise! We have to empty it a few times a week. We have one medium-sized bin outside the backdoor, which my husband then takes and empties intoo the larger bins (as pictured above) further into the backyard once a week. Our town has a composting program and we were able to get several bins for only $25 a piece.

A happy surprise:

Last year, we planted a slew of new plants in a new flower bed called the “bean” because of its resemblance to the legume shape. My husband added some of our compost and the plants thrived. However something unexpected happened. A new plant emerged and thanks to a great App called “PictureThis”, we identified the volunteer as a cantaloupe plant. We did not plant cantaloupe. However, our little guy, P, eats a lot of it. The seeds were in the compost and as a result we had three cantaloupe plants thriving in the back of our new flowerbed. It was such a happy accident! Not only did we get a few cantaloupe out of the bargain, our hydrangeas got some needed afternoon shade, and we harvested some seeds for the next growing season.